Rocket fire from Gaza at southern and central Israel and Israeli air strikes on the strip continued on Friday. A 4-year-old boy was killed in the afternoon when a mortar barrage hit a car in a community near the border with Gaza.

Earlier, a rocket hit a synagogue in Ashdod, injuring three people lightly. Before that a heavy rocket and mortar barrage on southern Israel left one Israeli moderately wounded by shrapnel in Be'er Sheva. Also, a home in the southern city of Sderot suffered a direct rocket hit.

In Gaza, Hamas reportedly executed 18 Palestinians suspected of being Israeli informers on Friday, according to a Hamas official and online sources. The official said that all had been convicted in legal proceedings.

Palestinian sources reported that two people had been killed in an Israeli strike on an agricultural area in Nusseirat, in the central Gaza Strip.

The executions followed the deaths in an Israeli air strike on Wednesday of three leading Hamas military commanders. The operation was described by Israeli officials as an intelligence coup.

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A 33-year-old Israeli man who was wounded by mortar shrapnel in Eshkol on Thursday was reported to be in serious but stable condition.

Germany, France and Britain have begun working on a UN Security Council resolution that would end the fighting in the Gaza Strip, a document obtained by Haaretz revealed.The U.S. has also joined the European initiative, diplomats said.

10:30 P.M. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman attacked the government for not defining a clear objective for the operation against the Hamas and called on the government to order the defeating of Hamas, in an interview with Channel 2 News on Friday evening.

"There is no doubt that the Hamas can be defeated," Lieberman said. "The operation needs to end with the Hamas waving a white flag and begging for an unconditional cease-fire. In a cabinet meeting I presented a model for the defeating of the Hamas, and it doesn't have to take a month and a half nor even a week and a half. This is a model that I believe can be implemented."

According to Lieberman the defeating of the Hamas would mean that the organization will not be able to fire rockets, manufacture new rockets or rebuild its tunnels.

10:22 P.M.The Israeli military rejects a Palestinian claim that people were wounded in an Israeli strike in Gaza's Sabra neighborhood, saying that no ambulance activity was identified in the vicinity of the target following the attack. According to the military, a warning unarmed missile was fired at the house prior to the strike.

The IDF says that the apartment is Sabra was used by Hamas operatives. (Gili Cohen)

10:21 P.M. Rocket sirens sound in several towns east of Ashdod (Haaretz)

9:57 P.M.Four people were wounded by rocket fire near Ashdod, one of them in a very serious condition. (Gili Cohen)

9:56 P.M. A military source says that the mortar shells that killed the 4-year-old boy earlier on Friday were fired from a school used by UNRWA to shelter Gaza refugees, located in the Gaza City neighborhood of Zeitoun. (Gili Cohen)

9:43 P.M. Rocket sirens sound in several towns near Ashdod. (Haaretz)

9:38 P.M. Rocket sirens sound in several towns near the Gaza Strip. (Haaretz)

9:18 P.M. Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Al-Zahar says Palestinian 'resistance forces' will not accept nor cooperate with international agreements that hinder its armament and the tools of resistance. In a statement on behalf of the Hamas Al-Zahar said that the 'resistance forces' will not accept agreements that do not fully remove the air and sea blockade on Gaza. (Jack Khoury)

9:10 P.M. At least 15 Palestinians are wounded in an Israel Air Force strike on a house in the Sabra neighborhood in western Gaza City.

Seven Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks since Friday morning, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. (Jack Khoury)

9:03 P.M. Alon Schuster, who heads the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council, says: "This summer, Israel cant be drawn into a war of attrition. It's either that we are going into battle, or for a diplomatic agreement."

8:52 P.M. Rocket sirens sound in a kibbutz near the Gaza Strip.

8:45 P.M. Rocket sirens sound in a number of towns near the Gaza Strip and near Netivot.

8:30 P.M. Rocket sirens sounds in Sderot. (Haaretz)

In Be'er Sheva, an Iron Dome battery intercepted one rocket over the southern city; three other rockets exploded in open areas. (Gili Cohen)

7:53 P.M. Rocket sirens sound in a couple of Israeli towns near the Gaza Strip. (Haaretz)

7:49 P.M. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls Alon Schuster, the head of the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council, and expresses his condolences and deep sorrow to the family of the killed 4-year-old child.

"In this difficult moment, I wish to strengthen the people of Israel," the prime minister says. "Hamas will pay a heavy price for this terrible terrorist attack. The IDF and the Shin Bet will intensify their operations against Hamas and the terrorist organizations in Gaza until the goals of Operation Protective Edge will be reached." (Gili Cohen)

8:10 A.M. Twenty-nine people were killed by Israeli bombing in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, the Palestinian health services reported.

That brings the number of fatalities since the cease-fire collapsed last Tuesday to 58 people. Some 2,078 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the campaign began in early July.

The number of wounded currently exceeds 10,300.

Palestinians note that Israel's current focus appears to be on the targeted killings of Hamas military commanders and those of the other Palestinian factions.

Israel's political and military leaders have said repeatedly in recent days that nobody in Hamas is immune to attack.

Three senior Hamas military leaders were killed in Israeli air strikes in Rafah on Thursday. Palestinian officials said a total of 11 people, including women and children, were killed in the attacks in the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood in Rafah.

On Thursday afternoon, searchers found the body of the daughter of Hamas military leader Homahhed Deif, whose family home in Gaza's Sheikh Radwan neighborhood was attacked on Wednesday. The girl's mother and brother were also killed in the strike.

News sites associated with Hamas reported on Thursday that the organization's security forces were rounding up collaborators with Israel, following the numerous targeted killings. So far seven suspected collaborators had been arrested in the last few days. Three others were executed after the legal procedures against them were completed. (Jack Khoury)

4:02 A.M. American diplomats said the U.S. had joined the European effort to produce a UN Security Council resolution that would call for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and advance the goal of a durable peace. (AP) Read more here

The scene of a Gaza rocket attack, where a 25-year-old man was seriously wounded, near Ashdod, August 22, 2014.Tomer AppelbaumDaniel Tragerman, 4, killed by mortar shells fired at a kibbutz near the Gaza border on August 22, 2014.courtesy

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